The initial AP report is, "Ohio executes inmate with 1-drug lethal injection."
Ohio has executed a convicted killer through the first U.S. lethal injection using a single drug, a longer but supposedly less painful method than previous executions with three drugs.
Kenneth Biros (BY'-rohs) was pronounced dead at 11:47 Tuesday, about 43 minutes minutes after he entered the death house at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
Ohio changed its execution method from three drugs to a single anesthetic following a failed attempt at putting a different inmate to death in September. Other states still use a combination of three drugs.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has posted, "Kenneth Biros becomes first inmate executed using single-drug method," by Aaron Marshall.
A Trumbull County man became the first person in American history executed using a single drug instead of a three-drug cocktail.
Kenneth Biros, 51, was pronounced dead today at 11:47 a.m. after being lethally injected in his arms with a single massive dose of barbiturates in the death chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.
The single drug is similar to what is used by veterinarians to euthanize animals.
Today's Plain Dealer carries the editorial, "Instead of looking for new ways to perform executions, the state of Ohio should get out of the death business."
Ohio has rarely been known as a public policy innovator, which makes the scenario set to play out today at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville all the more surprising -- and disturbing.
And:
This editorial board has a long and unapologetic history of opposing capital punishment. That position is rooted in a simple belief that the state should not be in the business of taking life -- especially not through a system prone to human error and arbitrariness.
But even those who support the death penalty ought to have second thoughts about methods of execution that cause unnecessary pain and suffering -- or about which such questions cannot yet be answered. That's why attempting an execution using a method untried on people -- even if it has been recommended by some in the defense bar, including Biros' own attorneys in earlier litigation -- is reason for pause.
Nonmedical prison personnel who can't find a vein for this poison have been told to inject a two-drug concoction into a muscle. That is a heavy burden on them, and a poor way to achieve justice for the people of Ohio.
Instead of looking for new ways to kill, Ohio should take a new approach -- locking up the likes of Kenneth Biros and Romell Broom with no chance of parole and no need to litigate their cases expensively and (almost) endlessly.
Earlier coverage begins with this post.
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